Genda Minoru

Genda Minoru, (born Aug. 16, 1904, Hiroshima, Japan—died Aug. 15, 1989, Tokyo), Japanese naval officer and air strategist who was chosen by Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku to draft the plan for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor (in Oahu Island, Hawaii, U.S.), which crippled the American Pacific Fleet and precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II.

Genda, a graduate of the Japanese Naval Academy (1924), was a fighter pilot who was regarded as one of Japan’s finest naval officers. He was a commander in the navy when he formulated the details of the air assault on Pearl Harbor, and he was promoted to captain by the end of the war. From 1959 to 1962 he served as chief of staff of the Air Self–Defense Force, and, from 1962 until his retirement in 1986, he served in the House of Councillors (parliament). For many years he was also chairman of the National Defense Committee of the Liberal-Democratic Party.

Click anywhere inside the article to add text or insert superscripts, subscripts, and special characters.
You can also highlight a section and use the tools in this bar to modify existing content:

Add links to related Britannica articles!
You can double-click any word or highlight a word or phrase in the text below and then select an article from the search box.
Or, simply highlight a word or phrase in the article, then enter the article name or term you'd like to link to in the search box below, and select from the list of results.

Note: we do not allow links to external resources in editor.
Please click the Web sites link for this article to add citations for
external Web sites.